Oakhill (and Friends)

Chatswood Oval provided the perfect setting for our first game of the 2012 season. A cooling breeze blew across the perfectly prepared pitch as Eleven of Stags “finest” took to the field with the aid of Five of our “brothers” from Killara West-Pymble. In addition, we had the very welcome services of “Big Matt” and “Big Bruce” from Wahroonga to join in North Shore alliance versus the dark side forces from the North West, OakHill & Eastwood.

The Oakhill lads arrived with a squad of Ten and were ably supported a willing bunch of about Six Eastwood Old Charcoals. So, let the game begin.

Let the port begin

The Stags forward pack certainly took it up to the opposing forwards. The Mighty Stags comprised of Brett “Nico” Nicholson, Robbie Bissett, Rod Cheney, Peter “Bez” Bezuidenhout (looking pretty lean and keen following a 12 month spell) and yours truly, Graham “Macca” MacDonald. In support were the “heavyweights” of big bad Bruce and Matt, who both assisted magnificently.

Bruce scored a nice bottle of red for his efforts at the after match function.

MINE!

The backs struggled to make many breaks with the limited amount of ball the forwards could secure.

Jeremy Anderson had a crack at half back until “Tricky” Rick Brennan turned up late and got the ball moving out wide to Chris Perfect and Scott Tanfield in the centres and Thomas “Rocky” Roch on the wing. On the other wing new recruit Allan Tricker was quick to turn his past rugby league experience to advantage of the Stags.

It’s in there somewhere

Just as well Golden Oldies matches always end in a draw otherwise this was not one of our finest displays of defense without the ball or free running rugby with the ball. However, the match was well controlled by referee Mark Montgomery and thoroughly enjoyed by all, especially after the game with the help of a few icy cold ones and the odd hot sausage sanger.

Many thanks to Dianna, Coota and Hamish for their skill on the BBQ, Finchy for keeping control of registrations and match day collections, Jon Leek who made a fleeting appearance from Perth and Alex “Grumpy” Burton for running the water & taking copious happy snaps.

All the essentials

Conspicuous by their absence on the day were the following:

Recovering from old or recent injuries; Karl Houghton (neck) and Matt Curran (knee)